Stephen A. Schwarzman

As long as you're excellent, things work out for you.

As you have more resources in life, it's your obligation to deploy those for the benefit of others.

Ironically, when a bunch of very smart people are sitting around a table for hours trying to figure out whether they should do something, that tends to not necessarily lead to the best results.

The best investments are the easiest ones to approve.

One of the rules I've learned is that struggling to try and think your way into making an investment is usually the best way to not have a great outcome.

I've learned that all investments have risk.

In the charitable world, I find myself giving to large projects that I think can make a large-scale impact.

I like creating new things.

I like being in warm weather. I find that relaxes me. I like being near water. I like sitting on a beach and sort of hearing the water, watching waves break, looking at the shimmering. I find that really relaxing.

What I've found in being around political people is they're willing to negotiate their ideology somewhere around 5 percent. They believe that's really stepping out. And it's really hard to do business when you only move 5 percent from your ideology.

Every year, I speak to our new associates and give them this advice, although in my own words. 'This isn't like school,' I tell them, 'where you want to get your hand in the air and give an answer quickly. The only grade here is 100. Deadlines are important, but at Blackstone you can always get help in meeting them.'

Today, whenever I'm under pressure to make a decision on a transaction but I don't know what the right one is, I try desperately to postpone it. I'll insist on more information - on doing extra laps around the intellectual parking lot - before committing. I take the same approach with people, too.

Inaccurate analysis produces faulty insights and bad decisions - which lead to losing a tremendous amount of money.

I don't control the political world.

I can't micromanage what anybody pays or doesn't pay. But the concept that half of the public isn't involved with the income-tax system is somewhat odd and I'm not saying how much people should do, but we should all be part of the system.

It's wonderful to learn about new cultures and to be able to travel easily to so many countries.

If I get angry, it's obvious. I don't have to say much.

I don't feel like a wealthy person. Other people think of me as a wealthy person, but I don't. I feel the same as when I was a fifth-year associate trying to make partner at Lehman Brothers. I haven't changed.

I've lived through periods of illiquidity before. Asset prices come down. The economy slows or even goes into recession. Then the cycle re-starts. We buy at lower prices with less leverage.

My father was very bright. My mother had enormous drive. Put that together, and that's my gene pool.